N.Y. Times CEO blasts Bloomberg over China articles

3/26/14 4:11 PM EDT

New York Times CEO Mark Thompson blasted Bloomberg News on Wednesday for putting “commercial interests ahead of journalism” in its handling of stories related to China.

Thompson's remarks came one week after Bloomberg LP Chairman Peter Grauer said the company should have reconsidered publishing critical articles about Chinese President Xi Jinping because they harmed Bloomberg's bottom line. Grauer said that the company "should have rethought" the articles.

Speaking at the Financial Times Digital Media Conference in London, Thompson quoted a set of principles set out when the Times was bought in 1896, which stated that one should report "impartially without fear or favour regardless of party sect or interests involved."

“To state the obvious, Mr. Grauer seems to have a rather different conception of what journalism should consist,” Thompson said, according to the Financial Times. “We don’t think you need to rethink investigative journalism. There are commercial realities … but it depends on what your priorities are.”

Thompson also said the press is "under attack from powerful foreign governments and those companies who put commercial interests ahead of journalism" and slammed the U.K. and U.S. governments for intimidating journalists.

“The continued moral commitment and economic viability of journalists who do still hold to the original vision and are prepared to stand up to opponents of press freedom at home and abroad matters more than ever. The New York Times remains such an institution," Thompson went on to say.

Thompson, the former director general of the BBC, has had his own share of personal controversies, however. He is involved in a government inquiry into why the BBC shelved an investigation into child sex abuse allegations against late presenter Jimmy Savile. (He has repeatedly claimed that he was not aware of the allegations while at the BBC). Last month, Thompson also apologized to a British Parliament committee for a failed $170 million digital project he oversaw while running the BBC.

Both Bloomberg and the Times continue to report extensively on China, even as they have come under fire from Chinese authorities for critical articles published about the country's elites. China temporarily blocked both company's websites and denied visas to some of its journalists.

But Bloomberg's repuation for fair-minded journalism on that front has taken a blow. Former Bloomberg reporter Michael Forsythe left the company in January over its decision not to publish an investigative piece on corruption for fear of being kicked out of the country (he went to The New York Times). On Tuesday, Bloomberg News editor Ben Richardson quit the organization in protest of the editors’ handling of the piece.